I ran into an interesting problem today with AIMSurplus, a distributor that had received ringing endorsements on TFL. This isn't an AIM bash, as you'll see as you read on; it just happened that my first encounter with the upcoming issue happened in a transaction with AIM.
I had placed my first ever order with them over the weekend, for some bulk 9mm.
Received an email this morning, saying that for my first purchase with them, I would need to provide some ID, to verify that I was of legal age for the purchase.
I found this odd, as I've never had to do this with an online distributor, so I called their sales number. The guy on the other end explained that several prosecutors have started bringing suits and/or setting up stings against companies for failing to verify the ages of ammo purchasers. This ties in with some info that Tom Servo had posted, about crackdowns on age verification in the recent past.
The guy at AIM said that the other online distributors will probably start doing something similar as far as requiring some legal form of ID age verification, when they get hit with similar suits or complaints.
Just ducky...
Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of giving out copies of my DL, or MIL ID. Anything with numbers that can be used for identity theft is not something I like to give out. Luckily, AIM accepted a copy of my concealed permit. Pretty sure identity thieves don't use those (how would they explain having THAT number, but not a DL or SSN?).
Problem solved, but it will be interesting to see how many other permutations of the same basic issue come up in the near future.
I had placed my first ever order with them over the weekend, for some bulk 9mm.
Received an email this morning, saying that for my first purchase with them, I would need to provide some ID, to verify that I was of legal age for the purchase.
I found this odd, as I've never had to do this with an online distributor, so I called their sales number. The guy on the other end explained that several prosecutors have started bringing suits and/or setting up stings against companies for failing to verify the ages of ammo purchasers. This ties in with some info that Tom Servo had posted, about crackdowns on age verification in the recent past.
The guy at AIM said that the other online distributors will probably start doing something similar as far as requiring some legal form of ID age verification, when they get hit with similar suits or complaints.
Just ducky...
Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of giving out copies of my DL, or MIL ID. Anything with numbers that can be used for identity theft is not something I like to give out. Luckily, AIM accepted a copy of my concealed permit. Pretty sure identity thieves don't use those (how would they explain having THAT number, but not a DL or SSN?).
Problem solved, but it will be interesting to see how many other permutations of the same basic issue come up in the near future.